August 23, 2004

I trust you've all heard by now that versions of Edvard Munch's proto-Expressionist masterpieces "The Scream" and "Madonna" were stolen at gunpoint yesterday from the Munch Museum in Oslo by a trio of masked Norwegian banditos.

Since such works would prove a tad difficult to unload, police are expecting to receive a ransom demand, just as they did when another version of "The Scream" was stolen from the National Gallery in Oslo 10 years ago. Last time around the thieves demanded $1 million, to which the goverment refused to accede. That work was later recovered undamaged.

But on the topic of value in the here and now experts agree that you simply can't put a price tag on a masterpiece like "The Scream"—yet they seem quite ready to throw around some estimates...

[**Update: in the interest of easy perusal, I've tacked on conversions of foreign currencies into US$ by way of XE.com]

Two hooded men rushed into the museum just before midday and while one threatened guards and patrons with a pistol the other used wire cutters and ripped 'The Scream' and the Madonna from the wall before escaping in a getaway car. The paintings are worth at least $30 million [US$ 21.1m].

"'The Scream' is in a league by itself," said Franck Giraud, a New York art dealer and a former head of modern art at Christie's. "It's almost impossible to value, but if it were for sale today, it could sell for over $100 million and become the most expensive painting in the world."

Gibbs and Vogel (the latter, by the way, reporting from St.-Tropez?) later make a point to remind us that a third-rate Picasso recently sold for $104.1 million. Hmmm... perspective.

Witnesses described the thieves as clumsy, even dropping the paintings on the way out. A silent alarm alerted the police.

...

Two hours later, less than a mile away, the police found shattered wooden frames and glass from the stolen works—a discovery that caused art experts to fear that the two treasures might already have been damaged.

"They are very fragile, I'm afraid," said the director of the Munch Museum, Gunnar Sorensen, said in an interview. He said "The Scream" in particular, painted in tempera on cardboard measuring about 33 inches by 25 inches, could be irreparably damaged if bent. The slightly larger "Madonna," another ghostly composition, was painted in oil on canvas and is more likely to survive intact without its protective frame, he said.

...

Mr. Lier said he was astounded that robbers a decade later could charge into the Munch Museum in broad daylight, with close to 80 people milling around in the galleries, and escape with two priceless works of art.

"Hasn't the city of Oslo learned anything about security in 10 years?" he asked. "I am shocked that once again it was so easy."

According to a witness, the works were on display at the museum with only minimal security precautions when the robbery took place, at around 11am. "What is surprising is that the two paintings were hung by simple cables in the first room, which is nearest to the exit," Francois Castang, a reporter for France Musiques radio station, who was in the museum at the time of the theft, said.

"What's strange is that in this museum, there weren't any means of protection for the paintings, no alarm bell," a French radio producer, Francois Castang, who saw the theft told France Inter radio.

"The paintings were simply attached by wire to the walls," he said. "All you had to do is pull on the painting hard for the cord to break loose—which is what I saw one of the thieves doing."

And Jorunn Christophersen of the Munch Museum responds to the critics (from CNN):

At a news conference, government officials expressed outrage that the paintings were not more carefully protected.

But Christophersen said an alarm did go off after the paintings were pulled off the wall. She also said the paintings were "stuck to the wall with solid screws." The robbers "used force in taking the Munch (paintings) away," she said.

Christophersen also said the robbers threatened the guards with guns as they headed to their getaway car.

**Update via AJ: Estimating the value of the works is probably beside the point as the BBC reports that:

Edvard Munch's iconic painting The Scream, which was stolen from an Oslo gallery on Sunday, was not insured against theft

This doesn't entirely surprise me as it isn't really possible to insure something of the sort for replacement purposes, but the BBC's reporting highlights one problem in light of early evidence of possible damage to the works (see above):

The Scream, which was taken by two armed men from the Munch Museum in the Norwegian capital, was insured against water and fire damage—but not theft.

Its insurers say this is because if a painting is damaged by smoke or flooding, the gallery needs money to repair it.

But if a painting is stolen, the gallery cannot simply go out and buy another copy with the insurance money.

"They are not replaceable so you can't buy The Scream on the street and put a copy up there," said John Oyaas, managing director of the museum's insurers, Oslo Forsikring.

"The focus is on other issues than insuring them. To a certain extent this is common practice because these items aren't replaceable."

But if a painting is stolen, damaged then recovered—and The Scream is very fragile—there will be no insurance money for repair.